Feverish Delight
by Eshlyn Kar
Summary: Possible OC. What happened the first time Chae'la met Bruck? For those fans who love Bruck and Xanatos redemption stories. May develop into a story. From story Golden Skin but you don't need to have read that one to get this one.


**Things to know:** Chae'la has visions of the future and is newly accepted into the Jedi order, though she had been trained as a Jedi by a rogue(long story of which you can read in Change in Timeline). She comes from two different species of almost humans and has four different kinds of vision, visions, ultra-violet, force sight(to see force sensitive things and auras) and normal vision. She has gold skin but it turns silver when she is scared, angry or sick. When she was young she sent a message to the Jedi telling them what lay in store for Xanatos, which changed his course of history. He became a Jedi knight and took Bruck Chun as his apprentice. This is from the middle of my story Gold Skin when Chae'la tells Obi-Wan she had seen Bruck's aura color once between Ch. 4 & 5 but you don't need to have read that story to get this one.

Obi-Wan wasn't all that fond of Bruck Chun. Bruck and Obi-Wan had always been rivals. Obi-Wan figured it was because Bruck was jealous of him. Obi-Wan had many close friends and had succeeded in all of his courses. Bruck struggled had struggled with his grasp on the force and his anger. Though he had friends, none of them were close. Obi-Wan and Bruck had competed to be chosen by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had won. This is what had caused all of the teasing and conflict between the two before they were padawans. Xanatos had helped Bruck come to terms with his jealousy and the two padawans had gotten along much better but Obi-Wan was still wary of the padawan. Chae'la had just told Obi-Wan about his force signature and that it was very similar to Bruck's.

"Why were you looking at Bruck's aura?" Obi-Wan asked curiously. He hadn't known the two had even met.

Chae'la blushed and Obi-Wan gaped.

"You were spying weren't you?"

"No, I was curious. He looked intriguing," Chae'la explained rather baffled. She had been instantly attracted to the shockingly blonde boy.

"It was that day Qui-Gon and Tahl left," Chae'la said remembering the day vividly.

* * *

Three weeks prior, Chae'la was on her way back from the council having just told them her newest vision about Tahl. She was headed back to her quarters, her eyelids drooping and her strength quickly leaking away. Her ordeal in the pool earlier had taken a toll on her body. She had been swimming with Bant, a fellow padawan, when she had a vision and had almost drowned. Bant had pulled her from the water but it had been a close call. She was exhausted and her lungs burned. It had been rather embarrassing to show up in front of the council soaking wet and clad only in her swimming apparel. Though none of the council had commented on it, she could tell the looks she was getting from more than a few of the council, including her master Eeth Koth, were looks of disapproval. She walked through the hallway, dragging her feet. She thought about going to the medical bay but decided to just sleep it off in her room. Chae'la waited outside the repulsor lift. She leaned against the cold metal surface behind her and closed her eyes.

Chae'la must have fallen asleep, literally **fallen** asleep, because the next thing she knew she was on the ground staring up at a very amused pair of ice blue eyes.

"You okay?" The amused voice and eyes asked.

"Yup," Chae'la said embarrassed. She quickly stood up and immediately regretted it. Her head pounded painfully and her vision swam dangerously around her. Ice eyes put a hand on her arm to steady her. Chae'la waited a few moments for the stars to clear her vision before looking at the boy in front of her. He was a few inches taller than her. He was wearing a light shirt, and a pair of Jedi training trousers, having just come from lightsaber training. Chae'la couldn't help but notice the well-defined muscles, rippling down the youth's body under his skin-tight shirt. Chae'la recognized him as Bruck Chun from her visions of Xanatos. Chae'la noticed suddenly that she was staring at his toned chest and he had noticed as well.

"I think I hit my head pretty hard," she said as a way of explaining her staring.

"Mmmhmm," Bruck nodded in amusement seeing straight through her bluff.

"I'm gonna go now," Chae'la said rather flustered and turning away from him took a step forward. Her knees buckled and she found herself in Bruck's arms, as he caught her. She pressed her palm to her forehead as again the migraine she was fighting off stubbornly clung to her. She once again couldn't help but feel Bruck's muscular chest on her back and she had to literally shake her head to concentrate on what he was saying, bringing more stars to her vision.

"I think I should take you to the medical bay," Bruck started, still holding Chae'la, but Chae'la flung up her other hand nearly smacking Bruck, cutting him off.

"No, I just need sleep. I was on my way to my dorm," Chae'la punctuated each syllable with her hand. She stood up straight and Bruck gingerly retreated his arms from her, only to have her fall straight back into them. Bruck chuckled.

"Maybe I should to escort you to your room."

"Yeah, I think that would be swell," Chae'la couldn't believe she had just said swell. Was she ever flustered in this incredibly gorgeous, toned, blue eyed... (_Get a hold of yourself Chae'la_!) boy's presence. She could feel his muscular arm around her shoulders and his other hand on her arm as he supported her to the lift. He gave the command to go to the dorms, still supporting Chae'la.

Once in the lift Bruck noticed that the girl was shaking, he figured she must be cold and put his cloak around her shoulders. It nearly swallowed her whole. She tiredly gave her thanks and pulled the cloak tighter around her. He held her in front of his body to keep her from falling over when the lift jerked into motion.

"Why so tired?" Bruck asked.

"Almost drowned, killer headache," Chae'la said curtly, her head was pounding. The lights in the lift were overwhelmingly bright. She decided to switch to her force vision to help with the pain in her eyes. Chae'la was surprised when instead of the room sinking into darkness, like it was supposed to, a ghostly white light filled the lift. Chae'la looked behind her at Bruck, her head against his chest, staring up at his face. She was shocked to see his shockingly white aura. Purple swirled in the mix but white was the overpowering color. Bruck looked at Chae'la strangely and she realized that she was staring again.

"Your pretty," Chae'la commented suddenly, (_What is wrong with me? Why am I acting so weird?). _Bruck arched an eyebrow.

"I think you did hit your head," Bruck smiled down at her. The lift came to a halt and Bruck tried to help Chae'la walk to her room but Chae'la found it exceedingly difficult to walk. She chalked it up to no food all day and very little sleep the last few nights, not to mention her trauma from earlier in the day. Chae'la was finding it had to sleep, she was having nightmares every night.

Bruck was getting frustrated with the very little progress they were making, when he noticed that the young girl was once again falling against him. She had fallen asleep, or passed out. He huffed and picked the girl up. He realized he had no idea who this being was; he had never seen her before, even though she looked to be his age. Most importantly he had no idea where her quarters were. Bruck stood in the hallway for a minute before he decided to bring her to his and Xanatos room. She could sleep on the couch in their common space. His cloak was falling off her and he tried to shift it, while still carrying her. He could clearly see the muscles that lined the frame of her tiny body, as she was only in her swimming gear. She was quite light and Bruck had to wonder how strong she could be with so little weight, though she was probably fast as lightning. Bruck suddenly looked forward to talking to this strange, silver girl skinned in his arms.

Bruck, with sleeping girl in hand, struggled to get the door to his quarters open. When he finally managed to do so the door smacked against the frame with a bang. Xanatos looked up from the heating unit in the kitchen where he was making the evening meal for him and Bruck. Xanatos cocked his head to one side and eyed the beautiful young woman in his apprentice's arms.

"So, what's this? Are they literally fainting at the sight of you now?" Xanatos teased. Many of the young women at the temple had noticed the attractive young Jedi and he was usually quite okay with the attention. It eventually got annoying after awhile of many love letters and bright-eyed requests.

"Hardy ha-ha, your so funny. Actually I think she may be coming down with a fever," Bruck said bringing his burden to the couch and setting her down. He felt her forehead and wasn't surprised to feel heat radiating off her skin. Xanatos came up beside him and looked over the young girl. She had a faint glimmer of sweat on her pale silver skin.

"What happened?" Xanatos asked worriedly grabbing some med supplies from the fresher.

"I found her in the hallway completely disorientated. I offered to bring her to the med-bay but she said she just needed to sleep it off. She fell asleep before I could ask her what room she was in. She mentioned something about almost drowning, I think she might be in shock," Bruck explained to his master. Xanatos administered some healing properties to the ailing girl and accessed the force to help regulate her core temperature. He instructed Bruck to tend to the food, while he concentrated on the padawan's charge. Within minutes of accessing the healing force, the girl's temperature went back to normal, her naturally healing abilities kicking in. Her skin color faded with the temperature and turned a sunglow gold color. Xanatos left the girl to sleep while he and Bruck made dinner.

Half an hour later Chae'la woke up to the smell of cooking food, with Bruck's cloak laid over her body. Bruck was suddenly there with a bowl of something that smelled delicious to her empty stomach.

"Hungry?" He asked her as she sat up pulling the cloak on.

"Starved actually," Chae'la took the bowl and Bruck sat on the coffee table in front of her, eating his own meal. Chae'la was forced to push the sleeves up in order to keep them from swamping her hands. Chae'la was 5'10 and Bruck was at least three inches taller than her.

"Feeling better?" Bruck asked and Chae'la nodded. Xanatos came in from the kitchen and flopped casually on the couch beside her, propping his feet up on the table beside Bruck.

"So what's your name little darling?" Xanatos asked charmingly and Chae'la nearly gagged on her soup.

"Chae'la Sretep," she said politely between bites.

"No way, you're that crazy witch lady everyone's been talking about?" Bruck asked shocked. Chae'la's hand had frozen between the bowl and her mouth.

"Crazy witch lady?" Chae'la said with a laugh.

"Padawan be polite. It's very nice to meet you. Indeed I believe I owe you a thank you. Qui tells me you are the one that helped me get my life in order," Xanatos and Bruck stared at her in gratitude. Chae'la really didn't like that. You'd think she would be used to being the centre of attention by now, but it still made her feel disconcerted.

"Yes. Well your welcome," she said awkwardly. Both Jedi were staring at her weirdly and though she was riveted to have two very attractive men at her attention, she didn't like this kind of attention. The kind where they knew you were different and were trying to see how.

"So how did we die?" Bruck asked suddenly.

"Pardon?" Chae'la was taken off guard at the comment.

"In your vision, you told Xanatos in your message that both of us died. How?"

"Ummm, you fell off a waterfall in the room of a thousand fountains after a duel with Obi-Wan and Xanatos threw himself into a chemical lake that killed him on Telos," Chae'la pronounced uneasily. The morbid images burned into her mind.

"Obi-wan killed me?!?" Bruck asked in disbelief.

"No you slipped," Chae'la defended her friend. Silence filled the room again. After a few minutes more of them staring and Chae'la looking intently at her soup, she finished the said bowl and was going to bring it to the kitchen but Bruck grabbed it for her. She was left in the room alone with Xanatos. Chae'la chanced a gaze in his direction and saw he was still looking at her. He suddenly smiled widely as their eyes briefly met. She awkwardly smiled back and then looked around the room. She could tell he liked making her feel out-of-sorts and she tried to ignore him. The small apartment was sparsely furnished, all of the furnishings being there only for convenience and not aesthetics. The walls were a taupe color and they were covered in pictures. Xanatos chuckled at how awkward she was and apologized.

"It's a habbit a picked up from Mace," he said by way of explaining.

The chuckling subsided and Bruck sat back down. Their conversation picked up, both master and padawan curious about Chae'la. She answered all the questions she could. Soon it was getting late in the evening and Chae'la announced she needed to get back to her apartment before her master started to worry.

"Padawan make sure Chae'la gets back to her apartment okay," Xanatos said farewell and the two padawans made their way to Chae'la's apartment. Chae'la had insisted she was fine but Bruck came along anyway. They chatted as they walked and teased back and forth easily. When they got to Chae'la's apartment they said good-bye and she thanked him for all his help.

"Yeah well it was really no bother. No more drowning," Bruck teased as he walked away.

"I still can't believe Obi-Wan killed me," he muttered as he left and Chae'la giggled walking into her apartment. She noticed she was still wearing his cloak and was excited that she would have a reason to visit the boy again.

* * *

"Holy kriffing sithspit you are crushing on Bruck Chun!" Obi-Wan yelled after Chae'la finished telling her story, (leaving out the muscular arms, hot bod, beautiful eyes, etc. details).

"Would you keep it down my master could hear you! And no I don't, he was just… nice is all," Chae'la whispered blushing. Obi-Wan threw his hands up in front of him in a gesture of surrender.

The two sat in silence for awhile before Obi-Wan looked at Chae'la with glee in his eyes.

"I can't believe you called him pretty," Obi-Wan laughed hysterically at the thought.

Chae'la blushed all over again.

"I know, I know, laugh it up. Let's see you go into shock and then come out not talking like an idiot. I had a huge lump on my head from that fall," Chae'la lied, got up abruptly. "I'm gonna go meditate." Chae'la went to her room and sat down with a smile. She still had the cloak in her room and looked forward to finishing the mission to get back to the temple and a certain someone.


End file.
